Weak stories about totalitarian ideologies

By: Sead OMERAGIC

Is there any branch that Bosniaks sat on that they did not cut off? These days, there is way too much talk about totalitarian ideologies. How much sense does the topic have as regards Bosniaks, the biggest victims of totalitarian ideologies and grand state projects of their neighbors? Didn't that nation, with tremendous number of victims, defend itself from the chetnik and ustasha ideology of crime? Therefore, to call Bosniaks to confront some totalitarian ideology within its own group is quite schizophrenic indeed.

As if Bosniaks were being slaughtered by the left-wing and not by chetniks and ustashas?! SDA has been and will always remain a combination of a second-hand Islamic and communist legacy. Truth to be told, the least of the members of the Communist party BiH were among Bosniaks, most of them were Serbs and Croats. However, in SDA there are too many of those who, at one point, took off their Alliance of Communist BiH shirts, and today they blame the local left-wing for being – totalitarian.

The former SDA leader, Sulejman Tihic, was a member of the Alliance of Communists BiH. The story about totalitarian ideologies within the Bosniak corps does not make any sense. It reminds of damaged goods imported from the neighboring Croatia. HDZ and SNSD are full of (communist) party secretaries. Starting with Dragan Covic who was a member of Communist party all the while he was working for 'Soko' Mostar. However, that is not strange considering the fact that some 97,000 members of the Communist party passed over to HDZ.

Lustration in the Balkans states would be a hard task to do as it would bring a full blast political storm. There are many converts in every nation. Perhaps in the realm of politics, instead of the issue of lustration, a law should be introduced which obligates every politician to list all political parties which he used to gain power and high positions.

If we consider the human dimension, it becomes clear that neither the nations nor the parties preach honesty and integrity. As the corruption is not a concern of the nation, we all have loads of our 'own' thieves. A concern for our own integrity and ethics does not have anything to do with the totalitarian ideologies. A large majority of Bosniaks do not want to be members of SDA, even though with that come privilege, jobs and open doors to fine life. Quite similar to other national and other political parties.

SDA should sum up the assets of those they appoint to high positions in the beginning and at the end of the mandate. We have never seen any such report nor will we ever.

What would have happened had it not been for the Bosniak officers from the totalitarian regimes who knew well both their job and the military science? There's lots of talk about national heroes these days... Late Izet Nanic, Hajrudin Mesic, Enver Sehovic, Adil Besic, Nesib Malkic. All of them are former JNA officers. What would have happened had it not been for late Rasid Zizic, Enver Pamukcic, Miralem Jugo, and then Atif Dudakovic, Ibrahim Dervisevic and hundreds of others who defended Bosnia and Herzegovina and came from a totalitarian regime and the obnoxious JNA?

What do we do about the fact that the 'totalitarian regime' was born on the foundations of ZAVNOBIH, the last attestation of statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina? And what about all Muslim brigades and all those who fought against fascism in the World War II? What is the legacy of our own history? Anyone can see where the fight against the totalitarian ideologies could lead us to. That story comes from those who glorify chetniks and ustashas. The Bosniaks ought to know that the rehabilitation of chetniks and ustashas will not last long before it all comes down together with primitive rule of some miserable political minds.

The bottom line is that, all this noise and anger is to conceal SDA's feeble confrontation with the Bosnian left-wing. If we managed to defend Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have to defend the concept of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Who is credible and trustworthy? Those who remained with the left-wing or those who escaped to the side of 'defenders of the nation'? Whom can we trust not to betray us? And do we always have to cut our roots and the branch we sit on?